APPLIANCE DEVELOPMENT TOOLKIT

In one aspect, the disclosure relates to an appliance configured to perform a cycle of operation on a physical article comprising at least one control board having control software to control the cycle of operation, a graphical user interface in communication with the at least one control board for allowing a user to observe and interact with the appliance regarding the cycle of operation, and a software framework configured to run in a processor having memory in communication with the graphical user interface. Aspects of the disclosure are further characterized by the software framework having theme definitions, access to a builder content information containing information with which the software framework associates a theme definition with at least one resource, and a theme manager configured to change at least one theme to at least one different theme in response to a user selection of a theme definition or sensing of the information by at least one sensor. The software framework dynamically renders the graphical user interface at runtime based on the at least one resource in response to the user selection of theme or the sensing so that a user can cause the control board to control the cycle of operation via the selected theme in the graphical user interface.